Drinking tap water in India is not recommended in most areas. Luckily, refill stations are widespread in the subcontinent. Bring your bottle and start refilling! In this blog we explain how.
1. WATER REFILL MACHINES
At some squares, stations and other public places you can refill your own water bottle directly at a machine. This will cost around 5 rupies per liter. Many hotels and museums also offer free filtered water. If they don’t have it on display just ask for it.
2. FREE WATER FOUNTAINS
At many places you will find public drinking fountains with signs indicating ‘drinking water’. We did not test this water in a lab, but we did not get sick of it either. This water is always free of charge and you will see many Indians drinking from them.
3. ORDINARY TAP WATER
When traveling to any country where tap water is not potable, we recommend to bring a filter bottle, steripen or other filter. We are traveling in India with the Water-To-Go bottle. This enables you to refill at almost any tap and drink unfiltered water from restaurants. Then you never have to worry about buying plastic bottles.
REFILL IN INDIA
You may wonder if refilling is really necessary when you only travel a couple of weeks or months in India. Packaged bottled water is widely available and cheap (around € 0,20 per liter). And you don’t want to get sick because of contaminated water. But as a traveler, we feel you have a shared responsibility for your waste.
Many places lack a functioning waste management system, plastic waste is everywhere and many items end up burned instead of recycled.
So please:
- Put in some extra effort for your water refills, while still using your head to assess the risks (e.g. does it look clean & trustworthy).
- Don’t open free single use water bottles in hotels, trains, etc.
- When ordering drinks, ask to serve it without a straw.
- Water refills are only the first step. You may also want to bring or buy boxes for food parcels and a reusable cup for chai.
MORE REFILL IN INDIA TIPS
If you have more tips on how to refill in India, please leave your comment below. We would love to hear your thoughts.
